Date Night: Part Five

I tried a few new things with regards to style and effects (such as the word balloons decreasing in size as the darkness crept in). I hope I conveyed the ideas clearly.

Aside from the style exercises, I have a feeling this will be one of those comics that sticks with me for a while.

I’ve mentioned this before: It’s been a rough year. I’ve had more than one occasion where I felt exactly the same way Sam feels in the first 3 panels. The world has a way of crashing in around you. I wish we all had a power like The Narrative to tap into when things look their darkest but the truth is we don’t. We have to find our own ways of getting through the dark times. It’s easy for some folks. For others, it is a constant struggle. We’re all wired differently. For me working on this comic, gaming, and making folks laugh are a few of the tools I use keep the bad times at bay. It’s not always super effective but I am grateful to have such things.

I hope you take something from today if you’re feeling down. Live a little vicariously through Sam. Sam’s had a rough go for a while now and beginning today, things start to turn in a new direction for him. I hope you enjoy where that direction leads.

If you’re new here and not familiar with The Narrative, you can read up about it in this comic.

Oh Gods yes. I can only now imagine Sam face hugging Grey like something out of an Alien movie, all the while repeatedly throwing wild punches. I’ll be satisfied with Sam giving Grey a kindergarten sized verbal spanking, but I can only imagine the horrific scene aforementioned.

Hey, just wanted to say that the art style really worked. Kind of like how, in a movie, the camera might pull back to show Sam in a void as the voices and events around him got echoy and distant. And then a sudden, tight close up as he invokes the narrative. It gripped me and, when I read your blog below, I had to let you know that yes, it did indeed work.

When you say about having a rough year and feeling the way Sam does? Yeah, I’m feeling ya there. It’s been a pretty bad year for me too. Still, on the plus side, I did find this webcomic! And yeah, I think everyone has times when they just wish they could do that, can’t wait to see what Sam and the Narrative do now ^^

The stylistic choices worked well too by the way. It’s always cool to see artists experimenting and improving!

Yeah, going through the same thing as Sam right now with the whole “seemingly perfect” girl who just happens to have an absolute douchenozzle boyfriend, making this one of the rare webcomics I can directly relate to right now.

Yeah Colmarr, looking back at that arc I feel the same way. Hindsight and all that. I’ve convinced myself that if the arc sees print in a collection, I am going to draw added pages for the story and action to give everyone more shine time. It will still be Brett’s deal but I’d LOVE to go a little deeper on the battle with the elves and Klaus.

As for Sam: I think of the Narrative as this wild, primal force that takes time to get a handle on. He’s touched it a few times and learned that hard way that he cannot outright kill with it. There are rules. Trust me when I say this WILL NOT be a wash.

New reader, and I know I’m late to the party on this one by a couple years, but I had to pause as I was reading through the archives and say this.

This world will always try its hardest to bring you down, to destroy your happiness if you let it. The true test of strength is to find ways to carry on, and keep our happiness alive. Never give in, never give up.